Two Monroe County nurses have licenses suspended for drug use

Beth Brelje, Of The Pocono Record

The State Board of Nursing has suspended the licenses of two Pocono area women, both because of drug use.

According to an order by the board, in March 2010, Elizabeth Petrone of Stroudsburg was found to have withdrawn a controlled substance from a Pyxis System, a secure medication dispensing system, and failed to document the administration of the medication while employed at Hoboken University Medical Center in New Jersey.

As a result, she was suspended for two years.

In March 2012, Petrone tested positive for benzodiazepine and opiates while employed at Pocono Health Systems, the state board's order stated.

The order also said she diverted the drugs Dilaudid and Ativan from Pocono Medical Center for her personal use.

Petrone completed treatment in 2012 and was to be monitored for drug use until May 2015 as part of a voluntary recovery program in the board's professional health monitoring programs.

But she failed to appear for drug testing three times in 2013 and admitted taking Percocet that she got from a friend in October 2013.

Her license was suspended for three years.

In a similar case, while working at Community Health Network in Indianapolis, in 2010, Carrie Ann Withey admitted taking oxycodone and hydrocodone for her own use, the board's order stated.

Withey, now of Cresco, was placed on administrative leave, diagnosed with opioid abuse, and entered a three-year recovering and monitoring agreement in Indiana, stated Pennsylvania nursing board documents.

She violated the agreement because of continued noncompliance, and her nursing license was indefinitely suspended in Indiana.

In support of that out-of-state suspension, Pennsylvania has also indefinitely suspended Withey's license, an order from the Board of Nursing said.